My Festiva flirting with a British blonde.

[mudder]

My car made me pull over to check out this cute 1971 850 Mini. It makes my Festiva look huge!

[sketchman]

Needs a B+trans swap and I'd have it. Not for $5k though.

Oh, a Miata drivetrain transplant would be sooooooo sweet in that thing.

[Prafeston]

Nice price for a cool old car!

[Advancedynamix]

There is one here in town with a B16 Honda engine in it, it's gnarly fast.

[Grey Vw]

She is out of your league bro! They only run like mid 14's with a B16

[mudder]

It's pretty sweet but the floor is gone.
The exhaust looks like about one inch.

[stonemaster]

cool car , too much money though

[Festiva_Fred]

I've always loved the classic minis

[Bert]

New these cars were selling for somewhere around 2 grand in 71. They still had the decorative tinfoil bumpers (ie no good for anything but looks) but engine options had become nil and eliminated any of the Cooper or S models along with dual carbs, twin gas tanks and disc brakes in the front. They did have feature roll up windows for the second year in a row and in 73 they bolted on a funny-looking roof rack-like bumper that was designed to push the lamps inward and out of the way in case of an accident. New legislation at the time said bumpers must provide protection so as 'headlights will not be broken during a 5 mph frontal impact".
I'm glad folks out there still take a shine to these beautifully compact cars (inventor Alec Issagonis was an engineering genius) but they are British-made and take my word for it as the owner of 1/2 dozen of them at around that time these cars were complete junk by any current definition of solid or reliable. A 5 year old Mini was a worn out and rusted car and $50-100 easily got you any number you wanted back then (except for the "S"s whose exotic motors were coveted by track and ice racers). Engine transplants were a heck of a lot easier back then and a stock 1275cc 7500rpm twin carb S engine was a huge performance leap over an 850cc 5500rpm single.
In fact they were probably a second or two faster to 60 than a decades-later EFI Festy! 0-60 in an 850 was about 1-2 minutes and really depended on wind and road slope.

[blkfordsedan]

My uncle has raced classic Minis in SCCA for about 40 years. He's now 80 and still races SCCA Solo auto-x.....but prefers to do hillclimbs in his 300hp Honda Del Sol. I'll post a pic of his old Mini tomorrow. Its V-Tec powered and burns E85.

[drddan]

Yes, those are pretty nice cars!

It so happened a while back, I was driving down the street, and came to a red light, I came to a stop, right next to a MINI LE 1000.

I looked like it had just been driven off the showroom floor!

Here is the thread I posted about it.

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/sh...ight=mini+1000

[mudder]

This one had 10 inch rims with some nice looking Kumho's.

[drddan]

I know! The 1000 had 10" rims too. :eeeeeek:

Where do you even get tires for that! :p

[Safety Guy]

I'd love to have a classic Mini, but parts and tyres are just too much money. Plus I'd have to learn a second type of car.

Beautiful they are though!

Karl

[blkfordsedan]

As promised, I found a pic (on Google Images of all places) of the old Mini that my Uncle built and raced. He built it back in the early '70's and continued to modify it over the years. Right now, I believe it is actually owned and raced by one of my Uncle's close (and younger) friends. Two years ago, my uncle would still race with it as a co-driver, but he's 80 years old now and his "reflexes" aren't what they used to be. Plus, I'm 43 and I don't know how I would even climb in and out of it, LOL. Anyway, last I knew it had a built Honda engine burning E85.